Annual report 2021 KLP Group, Sustainability and KLP

KLP’s principal product is public-sector occupational pensions. We set out to provide public-sector enterprises and their employees with secure pension saving that contributes to sustainable development. As part of our service, we also offer important and necessary additional services to our customers and members, such as banking and insurance.

As our customers are also our owners, all wealth creation goes back to them. This sets us apart from other providers.

• At KLP, we use any surplus to boost our financial strength. This contributes to higher returns on customers’ pension capital, and lower pension costs for customers.
• Profits also go to the customers’ premium fund. This is money that they can use to pay future pension premiums.

All profits therefore go towards lower pension costs for our customers. This means that customers get more for essential services that they have to deliver. KLP’s vision is to be the best partner for the days ahead.

KLP is a mutual insurance company with five wholly-owned subsidiaries organised as limited companies. The subsidiaries contribute to increased growth and profitability by offering good prices for banking, asset management and insurance services to everyone who has a pension with KLP.

The parent company Kommunal Landspensjonskasse gjensidig forsikringsselskap (KLP) and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a total of around 1,000 employees.

The company’s Board of Directors is elected by the corporate assembly and made up of representatives from the owners, which comprise municipalities and county authorities, health enterprises and other companies. The public sector employees’ organisations are represented in the governing bodies of the company.

The Group management in KLP consists of ten persons with a broad background from the Norwegian business community. Group management is organised by business areas, representing Life Insurance, Asset Management, Non-Life Insurance, Property and Banking. Group management also includes the shared functions for Finance, IT, Communication and Markets, along with HR and Internal Services.

Sverre Thornes
Group Chief Executive Officer KLP

Sverre Thornes has a BA in Business Administration from the American College in Paris. He joined KLP in 1995 as a fixed income portfolio manager and headed KLP Asset Managment from 2001 – 2006. He managed the Life Insurance Division of Kommunal Landspensjonskasse from 1. April 2006 to 3. January 2008. Since January 2008 he has been the CEO for the KLP Group.

Aage E. Schaanning
Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer

Aage Schaanning has a MBA from the University of Colorado and is an Authorised Financial Analyst. He has previously worked with raising finance, balance sheet control and asset management with BNbank and Kreditkassen before starting at KLP in 2001 as Investment Director at KLP Kapitalforvaltning. He headed KLP Kapitalforvaltning from 2006-2008.

Marianne Sevaldsen
Executive Vice President for KLP’s Liv division (Life Division)

Ms Marianne Sevaldsen is a lawyer. Her specialist fields are insurance law and corporate law. She is executive Vice President for KLP’s Life Division from February 1. 2013. She was previously senior vice president in the Business Department at Sandnes Sparebank, a savings bank.

Håvard Gulbrandsen
Managing Director KLP Asset Management

Håvard Gulbrandsen has a MSc in Management Sciences from the University of Warwick (1988), Master in Finance & Investments (1989) and is authorised financial analyst from 1992. His previous experience includes portfolio manager - fixed income in Storebrand Asset Management and Director of investments in DnB Investor AS. He joined KLP from the position of Head of Asset Strategies Equities / Head of Core Corporate Governance in the Bank of Norway Investment Management. He is Managing Director of KLP Asset Management since September 1. 2009.

Tore Tenold
Managing Director KLP Skadeforsikring AS

Tore Tenold was educated at the police college, the university and the insurance academy. He was Managing Director of SpareBank 1 Skadeforsikring AS and has previously worked at Aktiv forsikring and Vesta forsikring. He joined KLP on 1 October 2012.

Gunnar Gjørtz
Managing Director KLP Eiendom AS

Gunnar Gjøttz has a business degree from Handelsakademiet in Oslo (now BI). His background includes experience as CFO in NetCom, Løvenskiold Vækerø and Hafslund. Gjørtz also spent four years in the UK and France with Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux. He was CFO of the then listed Nora Eiendom when it was bought up by KLP in 1995 to form KLP Eiendom. Gjørtz rejoined KLP Eiendom as deputy managing director on August 1. 2010, and assumed the position of managing director on January 1. 2011.

Leif Magne Andersen
Managing Director KLP Banken AS

Leif Magne Andersen holds an Executive MBA in Strategic management from NHH, the Norwegian School of Economics. While working since 1997 for Postbanken and the DnB NOR system, Mr Andersen was Regional Director for the Personal Market Effort, among other things. Before that he worked as a head of department at Intentia and he has also worked for the Norwegian Defence Forces. Mr Andersen has been the Managing Director of KLP Banken AS since 1 December 2011.

Gro Myking
Executive Vice President Communication and Marketing

Gro Myking holds an MSc from NHH – the Norwegian School of Economics. Between 2007 and 2016 Ms Myking was Marketing Director of Posten Norge AS (the Norwegian postal service). She was previously Executive Vice-President Marketing at Hakon Gruppen/ICA Norge (a large Norwegian grocery retail group), and has run her own consultancy. She has served on the boards of several major Norwegian companies. Ms Myking joined KLP on 1 February 2016.

Kirsten Grutle
Executive Vice President HR and Internal Services

Kirsten Grutle joined KLP as HR Director on 1 September 2011, coming from the post of HR Director at Accenture Norway. Since 1 December 2016, she has been Executive Vice President for HR and Internal Services at KLP. She previously worked for Telenor, EDB Business Partner and Accenture. Grutle has a Cand. Mag. degree from the University of Bergen, with Economics, Administration, Organisation and Information Science among the subjects studied.

Rune Hørnes
Executive Vice President IT

Rune Hørnes holds an MSc from NHH – The Norwegian School of Economics. He has long and broad experience from working across business strategy, IT, organisational and work processes. Mr Hørnes has held the position of CIO at Storebrand, where he held various positions since 2005. Before commencing work at Storebrand, Mr Hørnes was Senior Manager at Accenture, working in banking and insurance. He joined KLP on 1 October 2016.

Egil Johansen
CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Egil Johansen was elected as first permanent deputy member in 2011. In 2014 he was elected as a director and deputy chairman of the Board. He is the project manager/chief administrative officer in the new Tønsberg municipality. He was previously county chief administrative officer in Vestfold, and has also been chief administrative officer in Porsgrunn and Re. Johansen has also worked for the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Aker group. Johansen has a degree in economics from the Norwegian School of Economics.

Jenny Følling
DEPUTY CHAIR

Jenny Følling is the mayor of Sunnfjord municipality. She was previously deputy mayor of Sogn and Fjordane, Mayor of Gaulaer and has held several other positions in the local government sector. Følling trained as an agricultural consultant at Vestfold Agricultural School and has also studied regional and landscape planning at the colleges in Volda and Sogndal.

Cecilie Daae
BOARD MEMBER

Cecilie Daae is CEO of Helse Nord RHF. She is 59 years old, and qualified as a doctor at the University of Oslo specialising in general practice. Daae also has a Master’s degree in Health Administration; she has completed the Armed Forces management course and has extensive experience of the health sector both as a clinician and as a manager. Alongside her board experience, she has previously held management positions at many levels, including several positions at the Norwegian Directorate of Health (including Deputy Director-General), and as Director-General of the Directorate for Civil Protection. Since January 2020, she has been CEO of Helse Nord RHF.

Øivind Brevik
BOARD MEMBER

Øivind Brevik is managing director of Samfunnsbedriftene. He has previously held positions in the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, the Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency (at the Norwegian Environment Agency), the City of Oslo and Romerike Avfallsforedling (waste processing). Brevik has an MSc in ecology and environmental management from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Odd Haldgeir Larsen
BOARD MEMBER

Odd Haldgeir Larsen was elected as a member of the Board of KLP in May 2018. He is vice-chair of Fagforbundet (the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees) and represents the employee organisation with the most members of KLP.

Erling Bendiksen
BOARD MEMBER

Erling Bendiksen was elected to the Board of KLP as an employee representative in April 2021. He has been employed by KLP since 1981 and works as a Customer and Sales Manager. Erling Bendiksen has many years of experience as an elected representative and is now the Chief Safety Representative at KLP. Erling has an advanced insurance degree from the Insurance Academy. He graduated from the “Rhetoric, Communication and Management” study programme at BI Norwegian Business School.

Vibeke Heldal
BOARD MEMBER

Vibeke Heldal was elected to the Board of KLP as an employee representative in May 2021. She has been employed by KLP since 2003 and works as IT Business Analyst in IT Contract Administration at our office in Bergen. Vibeke Heldal has a varied professional background, and from 1989 – 1999 she worked in the oil and gas sector. Heldal has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Administration from BI Norwegian Business School, and in her spare time she is currently studying Team Management in BI’s Executive Master of Management programme.

Deputy members

Egil Matsen
1st deputy, regularly attending from November 2021

Hilde Rolandsen
2nd deputy

You can read the report from the Board of Directors here

The idea of a municipal pension fund was born a good 100 years ago. When KLP was established in 1949, it was the result of a long process that ended with municipalities joining forces to establish a joint pension scheme. This formed the basis for the customer-owned company that KLP is today.

You can read more about KLP’s history on our website: www.klp.no/om-klp/klps-historie